About CBiRC
Intellectual Merit
The NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC) will develop technology and the academic and industrial partnership needed to transition from the current petroleum-based chemical industry to a renewable carbon-based industry. The industrial chemical industry that is the focus of the center is critically important to many aspects of society. Yet the current industry, which produces greater than 300 billion lbs/year of product in the United States, is intrinsically unsustainable due to the non-renewable nature of its feedstock. CBiRC will provide a novel environment for the research, training, and education of a new cadre of engineers and scientists who, in turn, will generate a new paradigm for optimizing the transition to a biorenewable chemical industry. The unique focus of CBiRC will be exploiting the integration of biocatalytic and chemical catalytic technologies to efficiently produce biorenewable chemicals. CBiRC will develop a new paradigm for producing biorenewable platform chemicals based upon the combinatorial metabolic processes of the polyketide biosynthetic pathway. Key biocatalysts from this pathway will be incorporated into microbial host systems to produce a range of polyketide-based platform chemicals. These platform chemicals will then be converted to final chemical products using chemical catalysts specifically designed for their selective conversion. By integrating biocatalysis and chemical catalysis, CBiRC will create a consolidated technological framework that can be used to produce a broad array of biorenewable chemicals such as dienes, α-olefins, and diacids. CBiRC brings together biocatalyst and chemical catalyst research communities with extensive experience in converting biobased feedstocks and connects them with the industrial and innovation partners from the petrochemical, agricultural processing, chemical catalysis, biocatalysis, and process licensor commercial sectors that are needed for successful technology translation. The extensive biorenewables-related infrastructure already in place at Iowa State provides a strong basis for strategically coalescing the unique CBiRC partnership.
Broader Impact
Creating a sustainable chemical industry is a vital societal goal. CBiRC will provide a novel multidisciplinary environment for the research, training and education of a new cadre of engineers and scientists needed to advance biorenewable chemical technology. The expertise demands of the center necessitate a distributed model that also allows CBiRC to reach a geographically and culturally diverse student and faculty population. The importance of biorenewables resonates with students of all ages, thereby creating a vibrant pool of students for the CBiRC. The excitement of the emerging biorenewable industry will be shared with pre-college students and teachers through programs developed at ISU and then shared more broadly through our member institutions. Undergraduate students will be engaged by the CBiRC through a unique Virtual Education Center concept, which establishes a new model for course content development and delivery, as well as through domestic and international research experiences. These opportunities in biorenewables will establish a diverse base of undergraduate students for recruitment into CBiRC graduate studies. In addition to working in a multidisciplinary research environment, the graduate students will be educationally broadened through international research experiences, joint advising, and start-up company internships. From this broad background, CBiRC graduates will have the skills needed to help bring the biorenewable chemicals industry to fruition.
NSF Engineering Research Centers (ERC) Program
CBiRC is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Generation Three (Gen-3) Engineering Research Center. The Engineering Research Centers (ERC’s) promote partnerships among researchers in different disciplines and between industry and universities. They focus on integrated engineered systems and produce technological innovations that strengthen the competitive position of industry. Their graduates are well-rounded, professionally oriented engineers with a global outlook, experience in technological innovation, and the ability to assume leadership roles in industry, academe, and government.
The goal of the Gen-3 ERC Program, in particular, is to create a culture of innovation in engineering research and education that links scientific discovery to technological innovation through transformational-engineered systems research and education to advance technology and produce engineering graduates who will be creative innovators in a global economy. Because ERCs play critical roles in academe by integrating research, education, diversity, outreach, and industrial collaboration/innovation, NSF views ERCs as change agents for academic engineering programs and the engineering community at large.
ERC Achievements Showcase
The ERC Achievements Showcase is a listing of research advances, achievements in education and outreach, and technology transfer achievements for all centers, organized by technology grouping. Since the first Engineering Research Centers were founded in 1985, these pioneering organizations have pushed the boundaries of knowledge across a broad spectrum of technology fields while transferring a continuous stream of cutting-edge technologies to their industrial partners. In the process, they have revolutionized engineering education and produced a new generation of graduates who are adept at innovation. This site showcases those achievements.
